Caswell announces road funds

Friday

Dec 20, 2013 at 3:00 PM

The Daily ReporterLANSING Ė Sen. Bruce Caswell announced Thursday that Branch County will receive just over $1.8 million in state dollars to fund repairs to the Athens Road Bridge.The Athens Road Bridge is one of 103 projects that will be funded through the state's Road and Risks Reserves funds; additional projects will be announced in early 2014."I often hear from citizens that we need to fix our roads. The road improvement moneyannounced (Thursday) will help to better our roads and ensure driver safety," said Caswell. "These funds represent a good first step in the ongoing discussions in Lansing about how to address Michiganís continued infrastructure needs."The Athens Road Bridge received one of the largest amounts of funding in the group of projects. Other counties receiving funding for road and bridge repairs include Lenawee, Monroe, St. Joseph, Jackson, Ionia, Wayne, Kalamazoo, Calhoun, Allegan, Berrien, Barry, Ingham and Van Buren."The County Road Association of Michigan applauds the Michigan Legislature and the administration of Gov. Rick Snyder for taking a good first step toward improving Michigan roads with (Thursday's) announcement of the funding of 103 state and local transportation projects," a news release from the County Road Association of Michigan said."As county road agencies use this winter to line up next summerís projects and resources, these funds are a welcome and timely addition for the coming road construction season," said Denise Donohue, CRAM director. "We view the announcement of these grants as a Christmas present to Michigan residents and appreciate the cooperation between the Legislature and the Governorís office in taking this step toward restoring our roads.""While we are happy for our members who received an allocation, this one-time call for projects generated over $500 million in requests just from local road agencies," said Dennis Kolar, managing director of the Oakland County Road Commission and president of the CRAM. "The funding of these projects is just scratching the surface of needed local road improvements in Michigan."The County Road Association represents the interests of Michiganís 83 county road agencies that collectively maintain more than 75 percent of Michigan roads ó more than 90,000 miles and the fourth-largest local road system in the nation.